UVEITIS IN RABBITS WITH PLEURAL EFFUSION DISEASE

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Abstract
Pleural effusion disease (PED) is a generalized infection of laboratory rabbits caused by a virus-like agent. The disease was first described as a mortality problem among rabbits used for the propagation of Nichols'' pathogenic Treponema pallidum in Scandinavian laboratories using the T. pallidum immobilization (TPI) test for the serological diagnosis of syphilis. The iridocyclitis, described as a manifestation of PED, was studied in detail in rabbits experimentally infected with the PED agent. All rabbits surviving the acute phase of infection developed a non-pyogenic, non-granulomatous anterior uveitis during the viremic stage of infection. The ocular signs of disease culminated between days 3 and 6 and disappeared within 2-3 wk. No recurrence of uveitis was observed during a 6-mo. observation period, nor by subsequent s.c. re-inoculation of the PED agent. The uveal reaction was mild and regressed almost completely within 4 wk. Discrete choroidal inflammatory foci occurred in some of the re-inoculated rabbits, but without changes in the anterior eye segment. The uveitis of pleural effusion disease in rabbits may be caused directly by the virus-like agent.